Rowing Set For Big Ten Championships
5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
May 1, 2008
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Heading into the Big Ten Championships as the top seed in three races, Michigan State rowing looks to reclaim the conference title, after finishing fourth last year and missing the NCAA Championship Regatta for the first time in program history. The University of Michigan hosts this year's regatta, on Saturday, May 3 on Belleville Lake.
PDF of Complete MSU Notes and Stats
In last year's event, the Spartans finished in fourth place with 102 points, behind third place finishes by the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four crews on Lake Wingra in Madison, Wis.
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
The Spartans came out strong in their first races of the season, taking on two top-five programs in No. 5 Princeton and No. 3 Brown. MSU split duals with the pair in Princeton, N.J., defeating the Bears but falling to the host Tigers. The weekend effort help boost the Spartans into the CRCA's national poll, where MSU appeared as the eighth-ranked program on April 2.
Michigan State continued to row well the following weekend with wins against No. 14 Notre Dame and Indiana, and the Spartans jumped to No. 7 in the rankings after the sweep. MSU spent two days at the Virginia Invitational in mid-April, where the Green and White faced No. 3 Virginia, Oregon State and Central Florida. After faltering early against the Cavaliers, the Spartans rebounded and easily took down OSU and UCF.
In the final weekend of regular season action, the No. 6 Spartans defended their standing as the top team in the Big Ten by blowing past Minnesota, then defeating No. 15 Louisville.
Finishing the season with a 7-2 regatta record, Michigan State boats all earned high seeds heading into the Big Ten Championships. The Spartans' varsity eight, varsity four and novice eight crews all earned the No. 1 seed in their races, while the second varsity eight and second varsity four boats are the No. 2 seeds. MSU's second novice eight boat is the fifth seed.
AWARDS AND HONORS
MSU has twice been named the conference's Boat of the Week this season.
The varsity four was named Co-Boat of the Week after opening the season with a win over Princeton and Brown on Saturday, March 29. The Spartans share the April 1 honor with Indiana's varsity eight crew.
MSU's crew began the year racing in 2,000-meter heats through strong headwinds and whitecaps on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J. The varsity four took first place by clocking a time of 8:29.8 against the Tigers and Bears. The crew of Nancy Diehl, Allison Duffy, Sarah Kreft, Clare Vandelinder and Ashley Wenneman finished more than 15 seconds ahead of Brown (8:44.9), while Princeton's boat finished at 9:08.4.
The varsity eight posted wins over Louisville and No. 15 Minnesota on April 19 en route to claiming the Boat of the Week honor. Michigan's varsity eight also swept the weekend outing against the Golden Gophers and Cardinals to earn a share of the weekly award.
Against the Gophers, the Spartans clocked a time of 5:44.5 in a triumph over Minnesota (5:49.9). In the second race of the day, MSU raced past the Cardinals by nearly seven seconds, finishing with a time of 5:42.32.
ROWING IN THE RANKINGS
Michigan State rowing steadily worked its way into the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/USRowing poll. In March, the Spartans received votes among the nation's best, but on April 2, MSU broke into the top 10, sitting at No. 8. Since, the Spartans have continued to climb the charts, moving up two spots as they now ranked sixth in the country heading into championship action.
Players Mentioned
